What is it about photographing the physical landscape that is so appealing? It’s just a mountain, a sunset, a geographic feature, or a raging river. There are millions of these scenes and yet, it’s what I’ve chosen to focus on. There are also ten’s if not hundred’s of thousands of Landscape Photographers. So there is extreme competition in the genre but that is a topic for another day.
I have always gravitated to the outdoors, to the wilder spaces on the map and can remember even in my early years being especially interested in heading out into the forest or the hills that surrounded my childhood home. While spending my summers at Camp Sloan in Lakeville CT I always signed up for the backpacking trips or my favorite thing to do back then - Spelunking. I signed up for that class so many times they finally told me no more. So, a heavy interest in being outdoors, taking in the scenes and participating in outdoor activities certainly headed me in the direction of being a landscape photographer.
The funny thing is, I think I always knew that photographing landscapes was what I should be doing. Even as far back as High School I had a sincere interest in it. I was on a school trip the summer of 1983 when I first got a taste of serious photography. One of the trip leaders was a nature photographer and on one occasion that I still remember clearly, he spent a couple of hours with us in Yankee Boy Basin Colorado discussing and demonstrating some basic landscape photography principles. He was shooting a professional level SLR and I was pretty much hooked. I was inspired by the idea that you could capture a moment in time and then reproduce that image for others as a visual description of your own experience.
Landscape Photography is Difficult! The process of making photographic images of Landscapes in different environments can be very challenging. Not only do you need to nail the camera settings, lens choices, composition, etc but you must exsist and work efficiantly in an environment that many times is not greatly comfortable. I’m often trying to keep myself warm, dry, and reasonably comfortable while at the same time trying to create great images and keep some pretty expensive equipment from being damaged or ruined in that same environment. Hauling my photo gear and personal gear into locations that are often rugged and remote has it’s challenges as well. One of those challenges is that many times I am hiking in the dark either on my way into a location, on my way out or both. I’ll admit that on occasion it can be a little creepy when hiking alone at night into or out of the wilderness. So the challenge of it all, at least for me, is one of the reasons I gravitate to landscapes and especially the wilder locations.
Landscape Photography is Rewarding. Heading out into the wild forests or mountains to photograph is always filled with anticipation. Planning my trips and then having the good fortune of returning with images that I am pleased with just motivates me to repeat the process. Many of the photographs I create are first thought of in a conceptual context during the planning of a trip. Sometimes I force myself to just sit and journal my ideas of images I would like to create. The image below is the result of that planning exercise. I knew prior to going to this location that I wanted an image of sunlit ridges at either dawn or dusk that would visually describe the complexity and beauty of the canyon I was visiting. Finding success after putting in the planning and effort is incredibly rewarding.
My Photographs are my Time Machine. I am very fortunate to live in an area that seems to have a lifetime of wild places to explore. If you add to that, all the other more distant places to visit and photograph, it quickly becomes obvious that you may not ever get to return to certain locations. The photographs created are my physical memory of my excursion and many times I rely on those photos for motivation for future trips. Ultimately though, I shoot landscapes just to remember the place I’ve travelled.
Photographing Landscapes is like meditation. When I am in the field working behind the camera or just surveying the possibilities I often enter “The Zone”. For me that means having only one focus and being in a state where all other distractions are non-existent. I am constantly analyzing the light and it’s interaction with the landscape while altering my compostions to take advantage of what the scene is giving me. Congruently, I am thinking about camera settings, lens choice and what things I can do to further improve the image. I’m also, often thinking about the potential challenges of post processing the image and what steps I could be taking in the field that would decrease the amount of time needed in post. With all these things going on I suppose it might be hard to understand how the process is meditative - but it is. Even with much thought going into each image and analysis of so many variables - It is all centered on one thing and that is the creation of a quality landscape image. When your focus is all centered on one goal and all other distractions fade away it is very relaxing. What comes out of that for me is a refreshed mind and a reduced level of stress and/or anxiety.
My childhood experiences shaped my photography but ultimately it’s the entire experience that really motivates me. The idea that I can plan a trip, previsualize a number of different possible images, execute the plan, and then share the results with others is very challenging, very rewarding, and gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
